Odd speakers.

[Dj17]

Lame post ahead. You've been warned. But don't be afraid to read. You are free to laugh at my expense.

I needed a soundcard, a mixer, and speakers.

I'm getting an Audiophile 2496, a Yamaha MG10/2 and for the speakers, I had no idea.

I'm a student and I'm low on money. I hope you know what I mean.

I still have a lot of things to buy considering my projects. I know what I need, I have a *great* computer. But my main concern at the moment is to *get some sound* out of the whole system. I know I could buy some cheap speakers, but it sounds like a waste of money since I probably won't use them ever again once I buy monitors.

I already own a few devices that could serve as speakers.

- Ugly, cheap sounding desktop computer speakers.
- Broken down, old school headphones. They probably were decent circa 1974.

But there's something far more intriguing in the corner of my room. I've always used that as an amp for mics and guitars while practicing at a relatively low volume with my band. That's what we were sold, at the store, when we were 15. But what kind of expertise could we really have at 15?

Anyway. Here's a description of the mysterious device. Tell me if I can manage to use it as a monitoring device. Maybe. Maybe not. I wouldn't know.

Name: Audiochoice QM4 by Soundtech - Made in China (no doubt).

It has 3 pieces: 2 speakers and some kind of amp.

Each speaker has: One 1/4 input, 8" woofers and over it there's what appears to be a tweeter. There some unknown hole below the woofer, and I have no idea what use it has. Anyway, That is all.

The amp has: 4-channels (each channel has a 1/4 output for guitars, an XLR input for mics and 3 knobs: gain/tone/reverb.) On the right there's an eq with low-mid-high, a level knob, a reverb knob, and the following input/outputs (I have no idea which they are. I lost the manual long ago): "footswitch", "send", "return" and "lineout".

On the back of the amp: Parallel output: "Max Output 100 watts @ 4 Ohms" Speaker 1 Mono, Speaker 2 Mono. Then there's the whole usual power plug and "caution don't throw this device in the water while it's plugged" thingy.

Anyway. I've been using them for a while, and they're actually quite potent. I can't put the volume on top because it's way too loud. Usually, it's 3/10 and it's enough. More than enough.

I read somewhere that it was less expensive to buy passive monitors, and that if you had a power amp laying around (something like "Max Output 100W @ 4 Ohms." would be written on it), it would be a good idea to buy passives.

Now, if you can, figure this out for me: can I use those as speakers for my system? How do I plug them?

If I ever decide to buy better monitors one day, can I still use the power amp and buy passives? If yes, have you got an idea of what brand/type of monitors coud use "Max Output 100W @ 4 Ohms" (whatever that means)?

And yeah... if I had such a device, do I still need a mixer (because I mainly use the mixer as a preamp.) And speaking of the MG10/2 mixer... does the preamp work for guitars too, or only for mics?

Enlighten me.

Sorry for wasting your time.

Thanks for the one who accepted to waste it.

[Dj17]

Ugh. Just realized it's quite long. Hope this doesn't scare anyone away.

[Farview]

It sounds like you have a powered mixer head and a couple of speakers. The main problem you will run into is that it won't be stereo.
You would really be better off just using a home stereo or even a boom box.